What Are the Best RelayDance Alternatives for Seedance APIs in 2026?

The best RelayDance alternatives for Seedance video over an API are LinkModel, APIMart, EvoLink, Makernice and yir.ai, all on prepaid terms. The real choice is about when the price of a job becomes final: after a hold, at submission, or before the job exists. We checked every platform's pricing, terms and docs on November 11, 2026.

What is RelayDance, and how does it price a Seedance job?

RelayDance calls itself a "Seedance Video Generation API" on relaydance.com (checked November 11, 2026), with a "Full OpenAI-compatible API": you submit with POST /v1/video/generations and poll the task by id, using a Bearer key. It bills "Pay-as-you-go per generated video", with no subscriptions, no platform fee, "No minimum spend" and a custom Volume tier. Its model ids carry the resolution in the name, so a 720p and a 1080p Seedance 2.0 job are different model values. Live per-model rates appear in the console after you sign in.

The billing mechanics are spelled out on its refund page. "When you submit a task we place a temporary hold sized to the worst case for the requested duration and resolution." When the task completes, the charge is recalculated from the actual output and the rest returns to your balance. If a generation task fails or errors, it is not charged. A request that completes but is "rejected or sanitized by upstream policy" is not refundable, and credit purchases are final except where consumer law says otherwise. Payment is by USDT or Stripe card.

Which Seedance APIs can replace RelayDance?

LinkModel, APIMart, EvoLink, Makernice and yir.ai can each replace RelayDance for Seedance jobs. LinkModel and APIMart keep an OpenAI-compatible request shape, and Makernice uses its own REST shape plus an MCP server.

RelayDance's per-model rates sit behind its console, so a like-for-like price comparison is thin. What public figures exist are set against Makernice's on the RelayDance alternative page, with the date of the check.

Holds, quotes and settlement: when the price becomes final

RelayDance holds a worst-case amount at submission and settles after completion, while Makernice fixes the charge before the job exists; each other RelayDance alternative sits somewhere between.

• RelayDance: a worst-case hold at submission, recalculated from the actual output when the task completes; a failed task returns the whole hold.
• EvoLink: on image jobs where the size tier is unknown at submit time, credits are held at the 2K rate and the difference is refunded on settlement.
• yir.ai: public estimates are for reference; the actual charge follows the quote at submission and the final settlement.
• LinkModel: shows the per-request price, with volume discounts, before you run.
• Makernice: a REST quote is locked for 12 minutes and the job is created from it; over MCP, generate prices the job and refuses it above the approved max_cost_usd. The charge equals the quote, so nothing is held or returned later.

Notes on each RelayDance alternative

LinkModel is the closest in shape. It says its "Endpoints are OpenAI-compatible, so migrating is usually a base-URL and API-key change rather than a rewrite.", and like RelayDance it has no minimum spend and no monthly platform fee. Jobs are created, polled and then retrieved. Credits do not expire, all credit purchases are final, and prompts and outputs are not stored after processing, so fetch files promptly. We found no rule on failed runs.

APIMart offers "one OpenAI-compatible API" across text, image, video and multimodal models and says "you only pay for successful requests." Pricing is pay-as-you-go, alongside Gold, Platinum and Diamond membership tiers. Unlike RelayDance, it allows a refund of the unused balance within 7 days after a top-up. It takes Antom (Visa, Mastercard, Alipay), crypto, PayPal and Creem, and supports a task completion webhook.

EvoLink sells credits at a fixed US-dollar rate with a minimum top-up, and "top-up credits never expire". "Failed generations are never billed", and its hold-and-refund rule for auto-sized image jobs mirrors RelayDance's approach. Results stay valid for only 24 to 72 hours before permanent deletion, so download right away. Payment runs through Stripe cards, Alipay, WeChat Pay, corporate bank transfer and invoices; purchases are final.

Makernice takes the opposite approach to a hold: the price is known before the job is created, and that is what you pay. It covers 19 video and image models, Seedance 2.0 and Seedance 2.5 among them, priced per output second at the same rate across modes. Failed, timed-out and input-rejected runs aren't charged; like RelayDance, an output blocked by moderation after it is generated is still charged. Seedance on Makernice doesn't accept video input. Results come back by polling, a callback_url or an account webhook, through Makernice's own REST shape and an MCP server.

yir.ai is an API router: "Each channel is charged at its own public price." That makes it the one platform here that says a failed attempt can be charged: "Every attempt the channel billed is charged after your discount, even if it failed". It returns results by webhook or job polling, keeps files downloadable for 7 days after job creation, and refunds only the unused part of cash top-ups, with a flat fee on small top-ups.

When does staying with RelayDance make sense?

Stay with RelayDance if your code already speaks the OpenAI video API and a base URL change is all you want to maintain; only LinkModel and APIMart among these make the same promise. Stay if you top up small amounts with no minimum, pay in USDT, or value its no-KYC signup. Stay if a hold that is trued up after completion is acceptable and you don't need the rate before signing in. For the rows that can be compared publicly, see the RelayDance alternative page.